Richard Locke began his first full-time job teaching seventh grade social studies at Francis W. Parker School in Chicago a quarter of a century before writing this article. Here he writes that as a young inexperienced teacher just out of college he was filled with enthusiasm and convinced that education could play a progressive role in society.…

Middle school students consolidate their understanding of integers and rational numbers, increasing their facility with fractions, decimals, and percents and encountering proportionality. This book shows how students can explore these important ideas in such diverse activities as exchanging currency and using area models to develop algorithms for…

Given its important role in mathematics as well as its role as a gatekeeper to future educational and employment opportunities, algebra has become a focal point of both reform and research efforts in mathematics education. Understanding and using algebra is dependent on understanding a number of fundamental concepts, one of which is the concept of…

The middle level years are an important period of transition for adolescents. Middle level students have giant hearts--they want to save the world, and they are learning how to reach outside of themselves to empathize and care about others. At Millburn Middle School in New Jersey, where the author is principal, staff members found a way to help…

This paper draws on mathematics achievement data from Milwaukee middle school students to illustrate the value-added approach to estimating school performance. Value-added indicators differ from traditional attainment indicators such as average test scores in that they are designed to capture the contribution of schools to growth in student…

Today, with the requirements of NCLB and state standards, schools are locked into a culture that seems to assume one size fits all. Teachers' focus is on preparing students to pass tests rather than on developing thoughtful curriculum. In this article, the authors discuss how teachers can move away from the constraints of disciplines and topics…

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a middle school epidemiology curriculum called Detectives in the Classroom. The curriculum presents epidemiology as the science of public health, using health-related issues that capture the interest of young students and help prepare them to make evidence-based health-related decisions.…

Burgeoning research on the adolescent (e.g., middle-school) years suggests that this is a particularly vulnerable period for the development of maladaptive eating patterns. Prior research has established a link between perceptions of maternal parenting practices and adolescent onset of problematic eating behaviors. The authors hypothesized that…

Research finds that the availability of specific coping resources can alleviate the more harmful effects of stress among adolescents. Although studies have investigated the relationship between coping resources and various outcomes among general samples of youth, no research has focused on adolescents who report high personal standards in…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical activity (PA) patterns of children. Forty-four 7th-grade students (19 boys, 25 girls) recorded pedometer data for 2 consecutive weeks. Separate 2 x 3 repeated measures analyses of variance were used to examine differences in total steps/day between boys and girls and between after-school…

This paper addresses the controversial issues of improving the reading skills of young learners through technology-assisted reading programmes. On reporting the results of primary school learners from grade 2 to grade 7 who participated in a computer-based reading programme for seven months, we try to answer the critical questions of whether…

Middle school data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are analyzed in this article to compare achievement difference between seventh and eighth grades. The statistical computing involves a selective subtraction of item scores in more than 40 countries. The research findings indicate that not all TIMSS items have…

As our schools and classroom continue to become increasingly diverse, the task of teaching ALL students within inclusive settings continues to challenge educators. Developing a classroom that respects the diversity of ALL students and facilitates their success is critical, especially at the middle and high school levels. This article describes one…

In an effort to make reading more visible and find out what goes on in the minds of adolescent readers, the author led a group of seventh-grade students in creating Symbolic Reading Inventories. The students created "snapshot" scenes from the books they were reading and placed themselves, as readers, in or around the picture. Reading is a complex…

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of problem-based active learning in science education on students' academic achievement and concept learning. In the study, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized. Quantitative data were obtained via the pre/post-test, treatment-control groups test model. Qualitative data…